DABOLL'S SCHOOLMASTER'S ASSISTANT: IMPROVED AND ENLARGED. BEING A PLAIN PRACTICAL SYSTEM OF ARITHMETIC: ADAPTED TO THE UNITED STATES

New-London: Printed and sold by Samuel Green, 1811.. 240pp. including tables and diagrams. 12mo. Contemporary speckled calf. Boards rubbed and worn, front hinge starting. Tanned, scattered staining, occasional edge chipping or marginal flaws mostly without loss of text. Lower right corner of p.55 torn away, with missing piece present and affixed with a pin, rear endpaper chewed and torn. Contemporary ownership inscriptions on titlepage, rear endpaper, and rear pastedown. A fair copy, but complete. First revised edition. Nathan Daboll's SCHOOLMASTER'S ASSISTANT, first appearing in 1800, was one of the first and most successful American arithmetics, quickly displacing its predecessors. Daboll, also known as the man behind the Connecticut and New England "Edmund Freebetter" almanacs, was a teacher of mathematics and astronomy as well as navigation. His mathematics textbook found success with extensive examples and the early introduction of money and currency calculations, and the 1800 edition was apparently the first book to make extensive use of the printed dollar sign. The "recommendations" at the beginning of the work include endorsements from Josiah Meigs and Noah Webster. This textbook was likely passed down from one sister to another; the manuscript ownership inscriptions belong to a Mary B. Partridge and a Sarah G. Partridge. A fair copy of this early American textbook. HALWAS AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL TEXTBOOKS 1760-1850, 101. SHAW & SHOEMAKER 22655.